Exxon Tumbles On One-Time EPS Charges Despite Surge In Cash Flow, Buyback Boost With oil prices enjoying a powerful renaissance in recent months amid mounting supply concerns, declining inventory and the growing possibility that China’s economy may finally kickstart, energy giants such as Exxon and Chevron had enjoyed a similar rebound in their stock price, and in fact XOM hit a record high as recently as 2 weeks ago. Which is why […]

‘For Your Own Safety’: USC Cancels Commencement To Avoid Pro-Palestinian Protesters Citing safety concerns amid nationwide campus protests against Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, the University of Southern California on Thursday announced that its 2024 graduating class will not have the traditional main commencement ceremony that brings all graduates together: “With the new safety measures in place this year, the time needed […]

Retail Sales Data Suggests A Strong Consumer Or Does It Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, The latest retail sales data suggests a robust consumer, leading economists to become even more optimistic about more robust economic growth this year. To wit: “It has been two years since forecasters felt this good about the economic outlook. In the latest quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal, business and […]

JPY Plunges To Fresh 34-Year-Lows After BoJ Does Nothing… Again Having already lost more than 10% of its value versus the US dollar this year, the yen plunged further overnight after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated monetary policy will stay easy as he kept rates unchanged and showed little to no support for the embattled currency during the press conference. While investors had not expected the BoJ to change its […]

Yuan Devaluation Fever Heats Up As China Stockpiles Metals Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist, Gold trading in China has exploded and stocks of copper have risen sharply prompting speculation that policymakers are on the brink of a yuan devaluation. Even though it’s still a tail-risk, it’s one requiring greater vigilance as the economy becomes increasingly deflationary, redoubling capital outflow pressures. […]

George Soros Paying Student Agitators To Whip Up Anti-Israel Protests George Soros and his far-left movement is paying student agitators to co-opt and amplify anti-Israel protests at colleges across the country, the NY Post reports. The protests, which began at Columbia University, have expanded nationwide – with copycat tent cities erected at colleges including Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and […]

UMich Inflation Expectations Accelerated In April To 2024 Highs Short-term inflation expectations rose… again… according to the latest UMich sentiment survey with 1-year expectations at 3.2% final, up from preliminary 3.1% for April, and 2.9% for March. This is the highest level since Nov 2023… Source: Bloomberg The headline sentiment also declined in April from three-year-highs. Consumers’ perceptions of their current […]

Why Are There So Many Americans That Can’t Find A Job Even Though They Are Desperate To Be Hired? Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, According to the absurd numbers that the government feeds us, the unemployment rate is very low and there are lots of jobs available.  But if what they are telling us is true, why are so many Americans not able to find work?  As you will see below, some people haven’t […]

Anglo American Rejects BHP’s Takeover Deal, Calls It “Highly Unattractive”  The world’s largest global diversified miner, BHP, is being forced to significantly raise its buyout offer of Anglo American or walk away from the proposed all-share deal valued at £31.1 billion ($38.9 billion).  “The BHP proposal is opportunistic and fails to value Anglo American’s prospects, while significantly diluting the relative value upside […]

Watch: Drag Queen Makes Tiny Kids Chant “Free Palestine” Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Video has emerged of a drag queen leading children barely older than toddler age in chanting “Free Palestine” during a so called “Queer Storytime for Palestine” event in Massachusetts. The event, featuring a drag queen going by the name of ‘Lil Miss Hot Mess’, took place earlier this month at the Northampton Center […]

Ukrainian Drone Strikes Target Russian Oil Refineries Again Despite White House Pleas Just days after the Biden administration signed a new military aid package worth billions of dollars to Ukraine, Kyiv launched a series of suicide drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. Biden’s top officials have pleaded with Kyiv to stop attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure because of the fears that turmoil in crude markets would send […]

Fed’s Favorite Inflation Indicator Prints Hotter-Than-Expected As Savings Rate Plunges With inflation data surprising to the upside recently… Source: Bloomberg …the doves’ last chance for sooner than later rate-cuts is today’s Core PCE Deflator – often described as The Fed’s favorite inflation signal. Last month saw an uptick in the headline deflator and following yesterday’s core PCE rise for Q1, all eyes are on the March […]

China Is Pivotal For US Inflation’s Path Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist, A more forthright response from China to its deflationary predicament would further support US inflation that is already proving sticky, adding to longer-term upwards pressure on term premium and thus yields. There are upside risks to the US PCE release today after the higher-than-expected core-PCE price index released on Thursday. […]

Futures Jump As Tech Giants Soar, Yen Plummets After BOJ Refuses To Prop Up Crashing Currency In a rollercoaster 48 hours to close the week, yesterday’s early market slump (after the disappointing Meta guidance) has been fully reversed and stock futures are now pointing sharply higher after blockbuster earnings from Microsoft and Alphabet with attention now turning to the release of US personal consumption data – the Fed’s […]

“Our Enemy, The Fed” Authored by George Ford Smith via The Mises Institute, The first thing to know about Dr. Thomas E. Woods, Jr.’s’ book Our Enemy, the Fed is he’s giving it away. Click the link, get your copy and read the whole book. Clearly, such intellectual charity is not only rare but in the educational spirit of Mises.org. The subject matter is light-heavy but Woods, author of the […]

UK Defense Chief Says Ukraine To Increase Long-Range Strikes In Russia Just as President Biden was signing into effect the newly approved foreign defense package which includes $60 billion for Ukraine, the United Kingdom also rolled out its own massive aid package (though paling in comparison), first unveiled Tuesday. Britain announced its single largest aid package for Ukraine yet, at the equivalent of $620 million (£500 […]

Polish President Admits That Major Infrastructure Project Has Dual Military Purposes Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, Polish President Andrzej Duda revealed in an interview that the Central Communication Port (CPK by its Polish abbreviation) transportation megaproject outside of Warsaw has dual military purposes. He represents Poland’s prior conservative-nationalist government but remains in office despite the […]

Sceptical Supreme Court Could Hand Trump Partial Victory In Immunity Case After two and a half hours, the Supreme Court has finished hearing arguments on whether a former president is immune from criminal prosecution. Reading the tea-leaves of the comments has left most believing that SCOTUS will fail to grant former President Trump the full immunity he is seeking (choosing instead to narrow the protections for former presidents), […]

Russia To Seize $440 Million From JPMorgan Seizing assets? Two can play at that game… Just days after Washington voted to authorize the REPO Act – paving the way for the Biden administration confiscate billions in Russian sovereign assets which sit in US banks – it appears Moscow has a plan of its own (let’s call it the REVERSE REPO Act) as a Russian court has ordered the seizure of $440 million from JPMorgan. The seizure […]

Chipotle Tells Workers To “Preserve” Chicken Supply As Demand Soars A surge in restaurant traffic boosted Chipotle Mexican Grill’s first-quarter earnings and revenue, topping the average estimate of Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg on Wednesday. Shares are higher by more than 5% in the cash session on Thursday. However, this note will not expand on earnings. Instead, we will focus on a letter from the company to employees […]

EU Prepares To Tighten Screws On Russian LNG Imports By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com In a move that could reshape Europe’s energy landscape, the European Commission is poised to propose new sanctions targeting Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. According to Reuters sources close to the matter, the proposed measures will include a ban on shipments within the EU and sanctions on three Russian LNG projects. The […]

Russia Will Target US Nuclear Weapons In Poland If They Appear Russia has warned that Poland will make itself a ‘priority target’ if it hosts NATO nuclear weapons on its territory. In a Thursday statement Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said “Moves in this direction will not provide greater security (for Poland or other nations that host such weapons).” He was further quoted in Russian media as saying:  Moscow […]

European ESG Funds Witness Heavy Decline In Inflows Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, European exchange-traded funds with a focus on ESG investing saw a substantial decline in inflows in the first quarter amid what Morningstar called “an existential crisis”. According to the Financial Times, net inflows into these funds totaled 7.1 billion euros, or $7.62 billion, in the first three months of the year. This was down […]

Poland Ready To Help Ukraine Round Up Military-Aged Men Poland says it is ready and willing to help Ukraine with its crisis-level manpower and recruitment problems, as it could be poised to round up Ukrainian military-aged males and return them to their home country. Government officials are now strongly signaling just such a controversial plan. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz issued the words Wednesday, largely […]

Former British PM Liz Truss Warns About Global Threat Of The Left Via The Epoch Times, Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss spoke Monday at The Heritage Foundation about how the United States and the United Kingdom are facing very challenging forces in the global left, not just in terms of their extremist activists, but also in the power they hold in our institutions. She warned that conservatives must create a stronger […]